Electronic flight indicators are required on most aircraft, to inform the pilot and, if applicable, the co-pilot of the aircraft, of various information to assist in flying the aircraft. Military aircraft, commercial aircraft and even personally owned airplanes include electronic flight indicators in the instrument panels of the aircraft. Two common electronic flight indicators are: a horizontal situation indicator (“HSI”): and, an attitude direction indicator (“ADI”).
Most military and commercial aircraft of today have a standard aircraft instrument panel dimension for each flight indicator. This is sometimes referred to as an ARINC cutout. In certain aircraft the ARINC cutout for an ADI or HSI has already been predetermined by industry standards. Thus, it can be problematic to add an additional hardware unit in many aircraft.
Known flight indicators have maintained one function for each indicator unit. For example, an HSI unit has been known to be a unique display indicator in comparison to an ADI unit. Due to the complexity involved in generating a particular display on the viewing screen of such a unit, known display indicators have been limited to just one type of display. Thus, these types of instruments have been special, single-purpose units. Therefore, HSI units have been separate from ADI units which also have been separate from radar units, etc.
Many modern aircraft also include a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) system or module which can provide accurate information about the position of the aircraft and also can be useful in planning or plotting a course. It would be beneficial if there were a device or method for utilizing the information in/from the GPS module to command the Auto Pilot without requiring that another piece of hardware be added to the already-crowded cockpit. It is to the provision of solutions to this and other problems that the present invention is primarily directed.